Believe it or not, there’s a link between the first ironclad showdown and the mountains of East Tennessee. The papers of John Worden, who commanded the Monitor during that clash 150 years ago today, are now in a vault at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate.

The day it first occurred to me that I’d scored a really cool internship was when I got to hold the speaking trumpet Worden used in the battle and the Monitor‘s signal lantern. Am I doing some shameless history buff gloating? Why, yes I am!